Kia Sportage wins Planet’s 4×4, People’s Choice Award for Kia Carnival

For the second year running the Kia Sportage has been named Britain’s best value SUV in Planet 4×4’s annual awards. Not to be outdone, the Kia Sorento also picked up an award for best ‘Medium Off-Roader’.

Kia’s Sorento takes the title of best Medium Off-Roader, having beaten off competition from the Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Pathfinder and Toyota Land Cruiser. With its value for money being of particular appeal, the Sorento – launched back in 2003 – was also praised for its “sprightly” on road ability as well as its sturdy off-roading skills.

The winning 2.0 CRDi XS Sportage was awarded the ‘Best Value’ award for doing everything well, for a reasonable price. With the inclusion of Kia’s award winning seven year warranty and starting price tag of Ł15,995, the facelifted Sportage can only further exceed the current, winning model.

Paul Philpott, Managing Director Kia Motors UK Ltd, commented: “We know that the Sportage is a quality offering in this marketplace, but to win for a second year when there are newer models out there, is really the icing on the cake.”

Planet 4×4 aims to provide readers with valuable information prior to purchasing a new vehicle. This years Planet 4×4 awards had a team of staff from the magazine assessing vehicles by putting them through their paces both on and off road, as well as subjecting them to a thorough static examination. Marks for the testing were weighted to take account of the importance placed on each by typical buyers. The criteria attracting the highest scores were value for money and practicality. [Source: Carpages]

Kia Carnival wins People’s Choice Award in Australia

Australia’s most popular MPV, the Kia VQ Carnival range (known simply as ‘Kia Carnival’ or ‘Kia Sedona’ in many markets) has won the 2007 Carsales Network (Australia’s largest automotive website) People’s Choice Award in the People Mover category.From 1 November 2006 to 31 October 2007, every time a Carsales Network user placed an enquiry on a new car, whether through carsales.com.au, carpoint.com.au or any of its affiliated websites, the enquiry counted as a vote in the 2007 Carsales Network People’s Choice Awards.

Commenting on the 2007 People’s Choice Awards, Carsales.com Managing Director and CEO, Greg Roebuck said, “During 2007, hundreds of thousands of new car enquiries were placed across Carsales Network websites. That means we can determine exactly which new car models Australian buyers are looking at purchasing, and in that way, the People’s Choice Awards are truly a vote by Australian car shoppers on their favorite new vehicles.

“Winners are not chosen by journalists or car testers or manufacturers or industry bodies but by Australian car buyers themselves.”

Bill Gillespie, Director Sales and Marketing at Kia Motors Australia, said, “We are very pleased that so many Australian new car buyers are considering the Kia Carnival or Grand Carnival for their next purchase.

“Carnival has consistently been Australia’s best selling people-mover and when it comes to actually making a purchase, approximately 35% of buyers in the under-AU$55K people-mover market have chosen either the Kia VQ Carnival or Grand Carnival, demonstrating that Carnival really is the people’s choice.”

The Carnival is Kia’s best-selling MPV in overseas markets so far in 2007, with 71,468 units sold through the month of November. In 2007, it has earned a five-star crash safety rating from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and was selected by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) of the U.S. as one of only 34 vehicles to earn the “Top Safety Pick.” The Carnival also received top honors in Strategic Vision’s 2007 Total Quality IndexT (TQI) in the U.S. [Source: Kia]